Monsters vs. Aliens vs. Avatar
two 3-D movies going head-to-head Memorial Day 2009
It's a Memorial Day 3-D showdown: DreamWorks Monsters Versus Aliens is going up against James Cameron's Avatar. Will there be enough theatres?
(Source: www.latimes.com)
Normally, theatre owners salivate over the possibility of two big movies going head-to-head by opening on the same weekend. But the news that two 3-D movies, DreamWorks Animation's Monsters Versus Aliens and Twentieth Century Fox's Avatar, want to come out on the same day has owners worried.
You see, both flicks want (a) a big opening and (b) to appear in every 3-D movie theatre they can. The problem is: by 2009 there will be 5,000 3-D theatres in North America. Both Fox and DreamWorks say they want them all; DreamWorks' CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg even said that he would prefer to have 6,000 screens available for his flick, Monsters Versus Aliens. There are only 700 3-D cinemas currently in operation in North America.
"I would not want to be put in the position of choosing one over the other," says Regal Entertainment Group CEO Mike Campbell. Regal Entertainment Group is the nation's largest theater chain. "I want both — just not on the same day."
Monsters Versus Aliens will be DreamWorks' first attempt to design an animated 3-D flick from the ground up. The tentative script follows a group of hidden monsters who come out to save the Earth when it's invaded by aliens.
Avatar is director James (Terminator 2: Judgement Day) Cameron's first movie since directing the 1997 live-action blockbuster Titanic. That flick rose (bad pun) from a highly-troubled shooting history to become the most profitable movie in cinematic history, making $1.9 billion at the box office and winning 11 Academy Awards. Avatar is set on a future world, where creatures with their own history, language and culture battle the human race. The flick has an initial budget of $195 million.
Neither of the movie studios look like they're going to back down any time soon. Since movies are costing upwards of $100 million to produce, and a strong opening weekend could give a flick 1/4 of its gross, finding the best spot these days is crucial for studios. A Memorial Day opening is a huge prize for any studio, since it kicks off the big-bang summer season.
DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg is totally behind 3-D, calling it, "the greatest opportunity for movies and for the theatrical exhibition business that has come along in 30 years.”
Not only that, Katzenberg wants the competition between Monsters Versus Aliens and Avatar, since it'll encourage more theatre owners to build 3-D screens. DreamWorks grabbed the date first, and Katzenberg has been pushing both the movie and 3-D technology hard, meeting with theatre chain owners to promote his vision of 3-D movies as the future of cinema. Despite his aggressive lobbying, Katzenberg has released few details about Monsters Versus Aliens.
The big concern is that, with both movies wanting as many 3-D screens as possible, there won't be enough and the two flicks will end up eating each other's lunch.
"These two pictures will have a tremendous demand," said Michael Patrick, chief executive of Carmike Cinemas Inc. "We will want to play three screens of one movie in each complex. If we need to, you could play both of them, but you would never get as large a gross."
Patrick expects every one of his 307 theatre complexes to have at least two 3-D-capable screens by 2008
Despite both Fox and DreamWorks promoting the technology, most theatre chain owners are still leery of 3-D movies. The concept dates back to 1954, when Arch Oboler directed the first colour stereoscopic feature Bwana Devil. Unfortunately, the flick tanked under a hail of lousy reviews: Time called it a "dog" and The Saturday Review's Hollis Alpert said, “It is the worst movie in my rather faltering memory, and my hangover from it was so painful that I immediately went to see a two-dimensional movie for relief."
So far, 3-D has yet to prove itself as anything more than a "value-added" for a regular 2-D release, much like IMAX. Disney's Meet the Robinsons has done semi-decent business in 3-D theatres but its only made $110 million worldwide. Theatre owners are looking at next November's Beowulf (directed by Robert Zemeckis from a Neil Gaiman script) to see if a movie can be a hit on the 3-D screen. That flick uses the same motion-capture technology that propelled last year's Monster House and 2004's Polar Express.
Despite the high-stakes competition, Regal Entertainment Group's Campbell is confident that either Fox or DreamWorks will back down and change its opening date over the next two years.
"It's too early in the game to start panicking," he says. "If we are sitting here in March 2009 having this same conversation, I will be much more concerned. I think it will all get worked out."
